--- title: Soldering description: Soldering covers the techniques used to join metal components and secure electrical connections using molten solder. Learners will understand how to select equipment, prepare surfaces, perform through-hole and surface-mount soldering, and inspect joint quality. category: trades-crafts subcategory: electronics-and-electrical difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced url: /subject/soldering --- # Soldering Soldering covers the techniques used to join metal components and secure electrical connections using molten solder. Learners will understand how to select equipment, prepare surfaces, perform through-hole and surface-mount soldering, and inspect joint quality. ## Available Resources 5 Websites ## Websites ### 1. Adafruit Guide to Excellent Soldering Guide from Adafruit to through-hole hand soldering: choosing irons, tips and solder, preparing and tinning the tip, heating pad and lead together, recognizing good and faulty joints, and fixing common problems such as cold joints and bridges. Beginners finish able to make reliable joints. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-guide-excellent-soldering **Tags:** through-hole-soldering, solder-joints, soldering-iron, electronics-assembly ### 2. Soldering Is Easy: Here's How to Do It **Author:** Mitch Altman, Andie Nordgren, Jeff Keyzer A seven-page illustrated comic that teaches a complete beginner to make a good through-hole solder joint: iron care, tinning, heating the joint rather than the solder, good versus bad joints, and safety. Free PDF under CC BY-SA, translated into over 20 languages. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://mightyohm.com/blog/2011/04/soldering-is-easy-comic-book/ **Tags:** through-hole-soldering, solder-joints, soldering-safety, electronics-assembly ### 3. electronics-tutorials.ws Electronics-Tutorials.ws is a free online resource offering step-by-step tutorials on basic and advanced electronics, with clear explanations, diagrams, and practical circuits. Topics include fundamental concepts (Ohm's Law, circuit theory), electronic components (resistors, capacitors, diodes, transistors), and hands-on sections on amplifiers, filters, and other common circuits. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://electronics-tutorials.ws **Tags:** websites, engineering-manufacturing, electronics-electrical ### 4. allaboutcircuits.com All About Circuits is an electronics education site offering tutorials, reference articles, and practical projects on circuit theory and design. It also hosts a comprehensive component library and an active forum for help and discussions. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://allaboutcircuits.com **Tags:** websites, engineering-manufacturing, electrical-engineering ### 5. sparkfun.com SparkFun is an online electronics retailer and learning resource that offers components, development boards, sensors, and kits, plus tutorials and project guides to help beginners explore and prototype basic electronics. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://sparkfun.com **Tags:** websites, engineering-manufacturing, electronics-electrical ## Youtubes ### 1. EEVblog #186 - Soldering Tutorial Part 3 - Surface Mount **Author:** Dave Jones Hand soldering of surface-mount parts under a microscope: tacking a single pad, small passives, SOIC and fine-pitch QFP packages, drag soldering with flux, clearing bridges with wick, and checking joints for wetting and opens. Covers the surface-mount part of the topic, which the existing Adafruit guide (mostly through-hole) does not. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9FC9fAlfQE **Tags:** surface-mount-soldering, smd, drag-soldering, flux, solder-bridges ### 2. EEVblog #183 - Soldering Tutorial Part 2 **Author:** Dave Jones Best-known free close-up video demonstration of through-hole technique, grounded in engineering. Dave Jones demonstrates through-hole hand soldering under magnification: tip choice, heating pad and lead together, how much solder to feed, wetting, fillet shape, common faulty joints, and desoldering with wick. Part 1 (EEVblog #180) covers irons, solder, flux and tools. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYz5nIHH0iY **Tags:** through-hole-soldering, solder-joints, desoldering, solder-wick, electronics-assembly ### 3. PACE Basic Soldering Lessons 1-9 **Author:** PACE Worldwide The only free video course that teaches to a workmanship standard (terminal types, acceptable fillets, heat control) rather than hobby tips. PACE's industrial training films on hand soldering: solder and flux, PCB terminals, cup, bifurcated, hook and pierced terminals, and component soldering. They show what acceptable joints look like, with heat-control and cleanliness rules in the style of military and NASA workmanship standards. Old films, unchanged technique. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL926EC0F1F93C1837 **Tags:** hand-soldering, pcb-assembly, solder-joint-inspection, workmanship-standards, electronics-repair --- *This content is part of Dantes.io - Your Treasure Map to Knowledge* *Curated by humans at Dantes.io. Personal study use welcome; republishing this curation requires permission (team@dantes.io).* View this page online: https://dantes.io/subject/soldering